Commercial poultry houses may have concrete floors, but such floors have become prohibitively expensive and therefore, at the present time, most poultry houses have dirt floors. In either case, over a period of time, the chicken manure forms a layer of litter on the poultry house floor which must not be allowed to build up indefinitely.
Certain prior art machines typified by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,263,257, 3,845,516, and 3,662,420 address the problem of removing poultry litter from the floors of large commercial poultry houses. The prior art machines are concerned only with the removal of litter and, in some instances, do a less than adequate job. As a consequence, considerable amounts of litter remain on the poultry house floor, and this is undesirable. Specifically, for example, the prior art machines fail to effectively remove litter that builds up on and about the walls of poultry houses, especially where the walls are irregularly shaped or supported by exposed, interior vertical support posts. That is because the prior art is machines are not effectively directed around such support posts.